A school district is asking voters to approve a huge tax hike to revamp schools that have, in many cases, fallen into disrepair because officials have spent maintenance money on personnel. That's what's on the ballot in … Clark County, Nevada, home of Las Vegas. The Review Journal asks voters to approve the funding request, but it also asks the state Legislature to "wall off" maintenance funding in the same way that the law walls off capital funds. "That would prevent School Boards from short-changing maintenance," the paper argues, "and it would stop unions from demanding that such revenues be steered their way instead."

The (Tacoma) News Tribune writes about another familiar question on the ballot in Washington. No, we're not talking about pot legalization. Rather, Emerald State voters, like those here, are choosing a judge for the state Supreme Court. But the choice up north is "tortured," the News Tribune writes. The two best candidates for the open seat were bounced in the primary, leaving a "doctrinaire libertarian" and "a flaming liberal." The paper throws in its lot with the libertarian, reasoning that five such people on the court would be bad, but one is OK.

Down in California, The Sacramento Bee certainly doesn't consider one county ballot question tortured: whether to eliminate the elected position of auditor-controller/tax collector-treasurer and create a county finance department. In other words, turn an elected position into an appointed position. The change makes sense, the Bee reasons, because voters are "equipped to make decisions about candidates for national and state offices, and for city council, school board and county supervisor." But asking them to "pass judgment on candidates for all manner of obscure offices" just doesn't make sense.

And, yes, plenty of regional newspapers weighed in on Monday's foreign policy debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney. Not all of them – surprise! - scored the event in the same way. The Los Angeles Times observed that the Republican challenger largely agreed with the Obama administration's foreign policy direction. Why, then, "not stick with the president who is already pursuing it," the paper concluded. U-T San Diego, meanwhile, conceded that a "neutral observer … might give the president the win on points." However, Romney's goal wasn't to best Obama, but, rather, to "eliminate the stature gap" between himself and the president, in which he succeeded. The editorial concludes by urging voters to "bring change to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."

Finally, check out Wednesday's Oregonian editorials on The Stump. They discuss the disheartening race between Portland mayoral candidates Jefferson Smith and Charlie Hales and look at a budget proposal by city Commissioner Amanda Fritz.